Thursday, December 17, 2009

Witch & Wizard by James Patterson

Imagine you wake up and the world around you - life as you know it - has changed in an instant. That's what has happened to Whit Allgood and his sister, Wisty. They went to sleep as normal teenagers, and woke up as wanted criminals. Accused of holding incredible powers they'd never dreamed possible. And now, just how different they are - special, even - is just beginning to be revealed in a strange new world. It begins...now. (Taken from back cover)

I'm going to be extremely blunt: I hated this book. It was so bad that I could only read half of it before I had to stop. I don't understand how a best-selling author like James Patterson could write something like this. My mom thinks he had a ghostwriter help him, so I don't know if that was the problem or not.

To start off, the plot of Witch and Wizard was poorly conceived. It was a mixture of fantasy and science fiction. Whit and Wisty are living in the United States, until a new totalitarian regime takes over. So it sounds dystopian right? But then, Whit and Wisty have magical powers and the regime doesn't like that so they lock them up in jail. That combination just doesn't make any sense to me. I feel like, in this case, you can't have it both ways. Also, the writing was really bad. It seemed like someone knew they were writing for teenagers and young adults and had to dumb everything down for us. Plus, every other chapter changed narration between Whit and Wisty and their "voices" sounded exactly the same! I had to keep checking who was talking because there was no way to differentiate between the two. Besides the reasons stated above, the book was stupid. So eloquent, I know. What I mean is that everything was just corny. The plot points, the dialogue, and the characters were all those you would find in a cheesy cartoon. It definitely wasn't intelligent, sophisticated or even mildly entertaining. I don't know how Witch and Wizard was even published.

21 comments:

Wow, thanks for saving me from ever picking this one up. The concept did sound good to me, but other reviews I've read have been very cagey -- not coming out and saying it's awful, but not overflowing with the praise either. Blunt is refreshing! Sadly, this will still sell because it has Patterson's name on it. It kind of smacks of laziness or greed, or maybe both.

I've read several bad reviews for this book, and I don't have any intention of picking it up. Like kiirstin said, it probably sells because it has Patterson's name on it. Thanks for the review though. I'm glad you gave reasons why the book wasn't good instead of just bashing it. :)

Thank you sooo much. I was actually going to bye this book against my better judgment. I bought The Dangerous Days of Daniel X and hated it, but on the other hand I love Max Ride...I was hoping that this would be more in the Max Ride area but I guess not :(

Man, I was going to actually get this book cause I liked the Maximum Ride series. But honestly? Max 1-3 was good, but James Patterson things children are just really, really simple or somehting, because they keep getting worse.

you know, you have realy bad taste in books if you don't like witch and wizard. i read this book in 2 days becuase it was sooooo good. people should but this book because you can tell the difference between whit and wisty's voices. i mean, wow! you must read realy stupid books, like, dr.suess...and like them.

I totally agree with everything you said. Plus, Every other page there was a new chapter started. The quality was just really crapy. Even though this is the same author that wrote the Maximum Ride series which I LOVED.

i loved this book! i dont know what you are talking about.... it was great! and yes... i did LOVE max ride!! although, i do think that james patterson did not do a very good descriptive job in this book.

No i absoultley LOVEEEDD this book! It was very intresting, and I was hooked right when i started reading it. I liked that the genres were all mixed up a little. It made the book very good. It was also very different from others so thats a plus ! :)

I think that I would have to disagree with your theory here. I loved the book. The only things I disliked was that the chapters were a little weird how they were so short, and that you could barely tell who was narrating. Other than that, I loved the book.

I love reading this book. James Patterson did dumb it down for us teens and I do think the 'voices' of Whit and Wisty don't really have a difference. But otherwise it's suspenseful and adventurous and everything else was great.

This is probably the twentieth reveiw I've read that says Witch and Wizard isn't a all-around great book. I'll still read it-natrually-even if I think it's gonna be corny, but I definitley won't buy it now.Thanks for saving me ten bucks. :]

I agree with you, 100% I couldn't get into the books because the author just threw me into the story. Sure, I like action and a quick pace, but there was never a chance for me to connect with Wisty or Whit. To me, there was no character development for either of them. I couldn't care less what happened to the two. Then, I just dislike how Patterson portrays teenage girls (but that's a whole other story which is pretty long).That aside, I do care for the lesser characters, Sasha, Jonathan, Emmet, Margo, ect. I never buy any of Patterson's (teen) books (I check them out at the library) because (usually) they are a waste of money.

I have to disagree with you about this book. I loved it! and yes it was "dumbed down", but I think that is because it is being told from two teen's points of view (yes I know Whit is almost eightteen, but in my opinion when hes narrating he sounds like a teenager) If it were being told by two adults then the book would most likely be worded very diffrently. I believe James Patterson might have wrote this book for a younger audiance (teenagers, 13-18 year olds) which could also be another reason the book was so "dumbed down". I loved this book and if you are a teen who loves books with, suspence, dis-topean societys, and majic, like myself than this book is for you! I would absolutely buy this book if I had the money, luckily my local library has the whole series!

About Me

I'm Megan and I am a senior (!) in college. I figure that if I didn't have books, I would probably go crazy, so I'm here to share with you all the wonderful (and sometimes not-so-wonderful) books that I read. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at megan1430[at]yahoo[dot]com